


Let Loose the Horses

by shirozora



Category: Tron (1982), Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: AU, M/M, Thoroughbred Horse Racing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-09
Updated: 2011-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-17 19:35:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/180446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirozora/pseuds/shirozora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who can resist the beauty, grace, sheer power, and courage of the Thoroughbred? Certainly not Kevin Flynn and most certainly not his son Sam.</p><p>...aka did I just write a Tron/horse racing AU?!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Loose the Horses

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a Thoroughbred horse racing AU and it is all [kijikun](http://kijikun.livejournal.com/profile/)'s fault. I can’t believe I made it work. I'm already thinking up a sequel involving a temperamental colt named Rinzler. My life, my choices.
> 
> The terminology, slang, and names I use are all real. My deep and abiding love for Thoroughbred horse racing goes back to 2001 and perhaps even a few years before that. I know a lot more about the industry than I should for my age and it, uh, shows. If you have _any_ questions whatsoever – terminology, names of racehorses, names of stakes races – don’t hesitate to ask (or google; googling is always an option).

It goes like this – Kevin Flynn was one of the last of the old guard in the California’s Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry. He bred and ran some of the finer racehorses in the 80s, including the local stars Space Paranoids and Separate Ways, and the multiple Grade 1 winner and ’85 Champion Older Male runner-up Disc Wars.

During the incredible economic boom of the mid 80s Kevin attempted to establish a foothold in the Bluegrass and cash in on the foreigners’ interest in American-bred yearlings, sending his best mares to the great stallions Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector. Unfortunately he was a couple years too late; his first yearlings appeared in Keeneland in 1989, when the exchange rate and the changes in the tax laws were beginning to impact the sales. The market crashed in the 90s, bringing down, among others, the legendary Calumet Farm, and Kevin left Kentucky poorer than before. This coupled with the untimely death of his wife Jordan Canas in a car accident in downtown LA saw him slowly extract himself from the racing business, selling off his farm, racehorses, and broodmares, and moving to LA to focus on raising his son, Sam.

This threw Kevin’s close friend and regular trainer Alan Bradley in for a loop, as he was responsible for Space Paranoids, Separate Ways, and Disc Wars, and many other runners under the Flynn Stables banner. Eventually Alan found other clients to train horses for and maintained barns at Santa Anita Park, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar Racetrack; even though one of his horses went on to finish second in the Preakness Stakes he never saw the same successes as he did with Kevin.

While Kevin found work at a small software company his more successful younger brother Clyde, who preferred to go by his childhood nickname “Clu”, got into the game. he purchased several of Kevin’s horses and bought a farm in the Kentucky Bluegrass; within ten years he became as much a force in the American Thoroughbred industry as he was in the stock market. He even won the 1996 Kentucky Derby with Bell’s Betrayal, a small, fragile son of Unbridled who came out of the race with knee chips and never raced again.

There appeared to be no love lost between the brothers, though; Clu was never around for Kevin’s successes in the 80s and Kevin was not among those standing in the winner’s circle with Bell’s Betrayal and his garland of red roses.

Into the new millennium Kevin began to show signs of wanting to get back into the racing business. It started when he bought back his old farm north of LA, followed by his appearance at the Barretts March Sale; he walked out of the sale with a trio of two-year-olds – a Bertrando colt, a Cee’s Tizzy filly, and a Turkoman filly – and promptly sent them to Alan’s barn at Santa Anita Park. The best of the three was the Turkoman filly Lora’s Lily, named for Alan’s wife and Kevin’s friend, a successful programmer.

Lora’s Lily was also the reason why Kevin’s son Sam emerged on the racing scene. Despite his interest in the game when he was younger both he and his father left the racetrack following Jordan’s death and the industry collapse in 1990, and he never appeared to be interested in following his father’s footsteps. Instead he attended CalTech and graduated with degrees in computer programming and civil engineering. But after Kevin suffered a sudden stroke that prevented him from attending to the business with his characteristic hands-on approach Sam stepped in, showing up at Alan’s barn at six in the morning to check up on the horses and discuss their future races.

* * *

  
This is how he meets Lora’s Lily.

“Well aren’t you a sleepyhead,” he says, crouching down and looking at the dark bay horse lying in the thick hay bedding. She’s so big that her muzzle sticks out under the webbing and he leans over, carefully blows into her nostril. The filly snorts and he chuckles as he rises to his feet. “Not an early bird.”

“No, she’s not,” Alan says. “She’s always the last to get up and when she’s finally on her feet she walks around like a drunk sailor. But once she gets that big black engine of hers going…c’mon, girl. Rise and shine. Time to run six panels for me and show Mr. Flynn what you’re really made of.”

Sam smiles at the love he hears in Alan’s voice as the filly slowly rouses herself, climbs to her feet, and sways into the side of her stall like a newborn foal.

* * *

  
This is how he meets Alan’s regular exercise rider. Or rather, this is how he reunites with a childhood friend.

“You changed your name to _Tron_?” he asks skeptically as he follows Lora’s Lily down the chute to the track.

Sam doesn’t know why that’s the first question out of his mouth and not, “You’re working for your dad now? As an exercise rider?”

“Don’t you remember?” he says, smiling fondly. “I said I was soon as I turned eighteen.”

“Yeah, but that was _years_ ago.”

Sam remembers the conversation. It was well over ten years ago, and took place after he lost a duel on Light Cycles yet again. He also remembers being embarrassingly depressed about it and the older boy saying that next time they’ll play doubles, which they did; that left Sam feeling like he could walk on water for days, which was even more embarrassing.

“Someone changed his name to Optimus Prime,” Tron points out, and the filly snorts as if to back him up.

Sam frowns at Lora’s Lily as he says, “Yeah, but that’s Optimus Prime. We’re talking about the 8-bit arcade game from the 80s.”

“Flynn named his horses after arcade games too, didn’t he? And that one Journey song; I think it was ‘Separate Ways’?”

“That’s different!”

Truth be told Sam can’t remember Tron’s birth name anymore. And the more they argue about it the more the name grows on him. And besides, wasn’t that Sam’s childhood nickname for him, too? He was the reigning Light Cycles champion at the local arcade, and the main character in Light Cycles was also called Tron; it made sense to call him that, too.

Guess the name stuck the same way with Sam’s estranged uncle and his particular childhood nickname.

“Get off the track, Sam,” Tron says, pulling Lora’s Lily to a stop and turning her to physically block him. “Don’t want horses running over you.”

He levels stern gray eyes at him and Sam scowls, flushing despite the heat of SoCal’s spring sun. As he walks back to the chute he watches horse and rider jog down the dirt track towards the clubhouse turn. He then goes looking for Alan at the Clocker’s Corner.

* * *

  
And this is how he meets Lora’s Lily’s jockey.

When Sam got onto the scene Lora’s Lily already had five races and three wins under her belt. Alan believed that she, like many of Turkoman’s best get, would be better on turf going long and her training agreed with his assessment, so they penciled in the Grade 2 Providencia Stakes over nine furlongs for three-year-old fillies.

Today is the filly’s graded stakes _and_ turf debut, and Sam’s understandably nervous. She was the most expensive of the three purchases Kevin made and the only one showing promise; the Bertrando colt Mastercontrolprogram can’t run his way out of a paper bag and the Cee’s Tizzy filly Gemini’s Gem is back at the farm, healing from a fracture to her left pastern. Sam knows his father’s watching the race from home and hopes what he sees makes him happy about his reinvestment in the game.

While Sam’s standing on the inside of the walking ring, waiting for Lora’s Lily and the other fillies to finish saddling up and trying not to watch Tron study the iconic statue of Seabiscuit, a woman wearing the Flynn Stables silks separates from the other jockeys and bounds up to him. He’s taken back by her beaming smile and the excitement in her eyes as she holds out her hand and says, “Hi, my name’s Quorra Arjian! Nice to meet you, Sam Flynn!”

“Uh…yeah, same here.”

She has a vice grip and he rubs his hand, wincing, when she finally lets go. She then tugs at her silks, says, “I always dreamed of wearing these colors. When I was little, really little, I used to watch Disc Wars run all the time.” She turns big eyes on him. “He was my hero.”

All Sam can do is say, “Uh…” and look at Tron helplessly as he and Alan join them. Then the fillies enter the walking ring, with Lora’s Lily snorting and bucking, and the call goes out.

“Rider’s up!”

Afterward the race and the obligatory photo in the winner’s circle Sam calls his father and listens to Kevin rave for a good ten minutes while they unsaddle Lora’s Lily and hose her down. Sam watches the filly try to lunge for the hose, then stick out of her tongue as Tron sprays water into her mouth.

“Almost got hit by a dirt clod going around the far turn,” Quorra says on the way back to the barn. She points at the smudge of dirt on the side of her face, indicating that she was talking about Lora’s Lily, not herself. “She almost ran over the seven horse so I had to check her hard, but she kicked into gear after we got in the clear. I like her; I think she can win big. Have you seen her races? I think she can get a Grade 1 next time out. Hey, maybe she can take us to the Breeders’ Cup!”

Sam raises an eyebrow at her. “Aren’t you a big dreamer.”

“I used to dream about riding Disc Wars to victory in the Gold Cup all the time! …then Mom and Dad got sick of it and I had to sneak over to my friend’s house to watch him run,” she supplies. Then she realizes what she said and looks thoroughly embarrassed, touches her fingertips together as she quickly adds, “Of course, you’re the one who makes the decision, being the owner and all. I’m just the jockey trying to get your horse to the finish line first.”

“And who could be the one riding her in the Breeders’ Cup,” Sam says, looking to Lora’s Lily up ahead of them. “The way she ran, I can see why Dad and Alan were always talking about her.”

“You should try riding her,” Tron rumbles quietly. “Once she gets going there’s no stopping her. People say the best horses are like Ferraris but I like comparing them to motorcycles, and she’s like a Ducati. She’s the horse everyone dreams of.”

“Yeah?” Sam asks, looking at him. Everyone knows how much it means for Sam to have that one good horse for his father, and to hear Tron and Quorra put it like that means a lot more than he realizes.

Tron returns the look with a smile stretching back into their childhood days and Sam’s heart skips a beat.

Quorra giggles at them. “You two are so cute. Anyway, got a mount in Race 7; see you around! Oh, and it was nice meeting you, Sam!”

Up ahead Lora’s Lily snorts and shakes her mane, spraying water all over Alan and her groom.

* * *

  
One year later, on a rainy November Saturday in Monmouth, New Jersey, they all watch Lora’s Lily run the race of her life and Quorra ride the race of her life as the two charge down the soggy turf to catch Lahudood and pass her by to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf. Struggling home fifth behind the two, Honey Ryder, and Passage of Time is Clu’s top turf mare, Black And Gold, a daughter of Kevin’s star racemare Separate Ways.

Kevin, who made the trip because for the first time ever one of the horses running in the Breeders’ Cup was wearing his silks, hugs Alan and Lora while the grandstand roars at the upset win.

Sam is so overcome with the adrenaline rush and the thrill of winning a big one for his father that without a second thought he jumps Tron. Tron returns the kiss fervently, wraps his arms around Sam as they go down, knocking plastic chairs every which way and getting soaked by the rain. They miss Quorra’s muddy yet sunny grin on the big screen as she brings an equally muddy Lora’s Lily back to the winner’s circle.

“You two are so cute,” she says later, when they’re back in Arcadia and have put behind rainy Jersey and the tragic loss of the Irish-bred George Washington on the racetrack. She holds up her laptop and shows them a YouTube video of the tackle someone had taken with a handheld camcorder.

Sam flushes and glances up at Tron, who’s playing with Lora’s Lily. There’s a smile on his face that Sam knows isn’t just for the champion filly.

Sam closes his eyes and leans against a hay bale, listens to the filly nicker while Quorra plays another YouTube video and the horses move about in their stalls.


End file.
